We took the train into Brussels. Actually, I've got to stop
and have a rant here. Getting a train ticket at Brussels airport
for the trains is a ridiculous affair. You don't have to leave
the building which is the good thing about it. BUT, when you
do get to the ticket office, there are only two ticket machines
- one of which no-one uses because they can't get to it on
account of people queueing to talk to the ticket officers.
The reason people are queuing for the ticket officers is because
the machines do not accept either (a) credit cards of any kind
or (b) cash. You can pay with Belgian-only debit cards. The
machines are clearly labeled no credit-cards. There is NO label
saying no cash. You can't find that out until you're at the
front of the queue on account of the weight of people. And
when you do find out, you have to join the end of another queue.
Brussels is an international airport. I am not the only person,
it appears, who arrives at Brussels airport without a Belgian
debit card. While employing more staff may be good for massaging
the unemployment figures it doesn't do anything for customer
service.

Ticketing
aside, we found our way quickly and easily to the EU District
of Brussels on the train to Gare Central and train to Schuman.
Coming out of Schuman metro, we were presented with the monstrosity
of the European Commission building of Berlaymont. This really
is one of the ugliest buildings I've seen in a long time. It's
in one of those strange curved four-winged shapeds. It was
built in 1967 and had to be closed in 1991 when leaking asbestos
was discovered. 1,400 tonnes of Asbestos had to be removed
from the building. In my opinion, the building should have
been removed along with the Asbestos.

Anyways, having identified the meeting place, I was off to
the the Gare du Luxembourg so that we knew where we were going
to catch our train this evening. Always good to know these
things. The Gare du Luxembourg used to be the oldest train
station in
Belgium
until it was torn town a few years back
to make way for the European Paliament building. All that remains
of the old Gare du Lexembourg is the façde of the building
which, from the looks of it, is a real shame. The new Gare
du Luxembourg is now further down the Rue de Treves and is
still under construction - the Belgians have carefully concealed
the entrance to station with various large crates to the extent
that even the large "B" sign which one normally looks
for is barely visible from the Place du Luxembourg. Which can
cause a certain amount of confusion when theres nothing by
way of any other sign posting.

So anyway, having found the very hidden train station it was
time to have a little wander around the EU area. Which I can
now confirm has being unduly boring, dull and a scar on the
underbelly of time wasted designing shit. The EU Parliament
building, while modern and somewhat attractive, is only in
use a few weeks of the year. I have an interest in politics
and have visited various parliaments in various places around
the world and would have rather enjoyed taking a look round.
In what I can only describe as being stupendously ignorant
every information centre I was able to find (including one
behind the façade of the former Gare de Luxembourg)
was closed. Perhaps I'm asking too much but nearly every tourist
information centre in the rest of the world is open on a Saturday
- and I don't view information centres of the European Union
any differently. Actually, given the increasing sceptism about
the European Union in general, the rejection of the Constituional
Treaty and the current debate surrounding the Lisbon treaty,
I would have thought that the European Union would have provided
itself with an oppurtunity to "educate" us about
it's workings. To many of us, the workings of our own parliaments
are opaque enough and many are visitable whether they are sitting
or not. The severe opaqueness of the EU's central gevernment
and discontent with it mean it needs to do a lot more work
- most especially when citizens of it's member countries have
come to it. Opening the visitor centres on weekends and giving
free guided tours would be an excellent start.

Having
decided that the European Union was closed (and would probably
remain that way for some way) I wandered off to Parc du Cinquantenaire
which borders the extremly ugly EU area at the end of Rue de
la Loi and Rue Belliard and the Arcade du Cinquantenaire at
the other. The arcade is impressive enough and construction
was commenced under the reign of Leopold II as a triumphal
arch. The arch itself is quite impressive and is, apparently,
the widest trimphal arch in the world. Construction was commenced
in 1880 to commerate the 50th anniversary of Belgian independance
but was only completed in 1905 - just in time for the 75th
anniversary. During it's time, the Arch caused some tension
between King Leopold II and the Government of the day over
the costs of construction. Today the buildings of the Cinquantenaire
house the Royal Museums for Art and History, the Royal Army
and Military History Museum and the Autoworld museum.

Having found where we leave from and spent a bit of time doing
down the generally poor quality of the EU buildings, it was
time to grab myself a coffee at Kitty O'Sheas Irish pub. Kitty
O'Sheas did have the 6 nations England/Ireland match on and
seemed to have a good mix of fans and a healthy rivally between
them. The first half over, it was off to pick up my partner
and head down to Luxembourg which was a generally seamless
2 ¾ hour event.

About Mark Sukhija

Mark Sukhija is a travel and wine blogger, photographer, tourism researcher, hat-touting, white-shirt-wearing, New Zealand fantatic and eclipse chaser. Aside from at least annual visits to New Zealand, Mark has seen eclipses in South Australia (2002), Libya (2006), China (2009) and Queensland (2012). After twelve years in Switzerland, Mark moved back to London in 2012. You can follow Mark on Twitter or Facebook